Brand new HP Spectre x360 broken on arrival, now what?

[Semper_fidelis]

Hello everyone!

I'd like to share my experience so far with the HP Spectre X360. Just to see if anyone has a similar experience or has some advice on the best course of action here. So I bought a brand new HP Spectre x360 13-aw0350nd past Tuesday directly from the local HP webshop. It arrived the next day, and straight out of the box I've been having this issue where the laptop freezes for 1 - 5 seconds while I'm just browsing the web and listening to some music trough Youtube. I've done all driver updates, bios update, windows updates, full system reset and the problem persists. I've called HP support and they did the suggestion of a full system hardware test. So we did that and it passed on all aspects. Now HP won't get back to me till Monday, so I went to the Microsoft support forum to see if it's maybe a windows issue. Someone there suggested me to run a diagnostic tool called "LatencyMon" which checks if a system running Windows is suitable for processing real-time audio and other tasks. According to that result there is some hardware issue with my laptop that causes it to have issues with music.

 

Quote

Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. Also one or more ISR routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates. 

LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for  0:10:19  (h:mm:ss) on all processors.

Now I'm in a pickle. School starts this Monday and I really do need a laptop. Should I let HP try and fix it and risk them taking very long? And how likely am I to have more issues down the road if they do "fix" it? Should I see if I can get a replacement? Or should I just return it and ask for my money back? If I do return it, what other laptop should I get? Another HP? The new XPS line up is really out of my price range, this one costed €1400 for the i7-1065G/16gb/512ssd and XPS starts around €1700 for the base model. Did I make a mistake buying a HP Spectre or is this just a isolated issue?

Thanks in advance for any insight or advice!

[eeeee1]

RMA it ofc. send it back. yell at their manager. you should have warranty and they should be more than happy to send a replacment

[Semper_fidelis]

5 minutes ago, eeeee1 said:

RMA it ofc. send it back. yell at their manager. you should have warranty and they should be more than happy to send a replacment

The return policy is 30 days here, so I can either just ask for my money back or a replacement. At least according to what I found. But this model (13-aw0350nd) isn't sold on their website anymore. And I doubt they would give me a free upgrade. So not sure what they will offer me if I ask for a replacement.

[eeeee1]

Just now, Semper_fidelis said:

The return policy is 30 days here, so I can either just ask for my money back or a replacement. At least according to what I found. But this model (13-aw0350nd) isn't sold on their website anymore. And I doubt they would give me a free upgrade. So not sure what they will offer me if I ask for a replacement.

you never know until you try

[NumLock21]

They don't have the model you bought anymore on their website, then get a refund and buy another model. Do not go with the replacement.

[Semper_fidelis]

Sorry I might have jumped the gun a little, I just checked their store again and now I can indeed find the same model again.

[LJohn0840]

Hi there,

 

I think it is better to go for a replacement rather than a refund. Since you have already checked the store and have the same model available, get yours replaced right away. The 13 AW0350 of HP Spectre x360 might not be available later on, so proceed with your replacement at the earliest. 

 

Hope you get things sorted soon! Cheers!

[Semper_fidelis]

I'll call HP on Monday and see if they will replace it for me with the same model.

[Roswell]

If you ask for an exchange you’re going to have to wait for about two weeks for the new one. They won’t ship the replacement until they get the broken one.

 

Best option is to simply order a new notebook now and ship the broken one back for a refund.

[Semper_fidelis]

Reviews of my local HP Webshop tend to say that the refund time is very long, Possibly longer then the time to replace it. And my bank account doesn't allow for me to buy another laptop before getting the refund. I'll try the replacement first.

[Semper_fidelis]

Alright so I called and emailed HP on monday, and it took them till Thursday to send me a return label after calling them 2 more times and sending another email. Shipped it back right away and it arrived with them this morning. So let's see when I get my replacement.

[Semper_fidelis]

It's been a week, I emailed postsales 2 more times, called the service department 2 more times. Still no response. What a terrible organization. I recommend not buying from HP directly at least in the Netherlands. Not sure how it is for other EU countries but down here it's just the worst.

I just know if I change my return order right now to refund instead of replacement, that they are going to fuck it up even worse. So I'll wait for the replacement laptop and then go for another return ticket.

[Semper_fidelis]

It took almost 3 weeks, 12 phone calls and 5 emails. But I finally have my replacement laptop. First thing I did was run latencymon. And it seems to do even worse, although keeping in mind I didn't update anything on this one yet. But still this was a horrible experience. I'm just gonna go get my money back, which will probably take 3 more weeks.

[Elad.Evron]

On 9/19/2020 at 5:43 PM, Semper_fidelis said:

Hello everyone!

I'd like to share my experience so far with the HP Spectre X360. Just to see if anyone has a similar experience or has some advice on the best course of action here. So I bought a brand new HP Spectre x360 13-aw0350nd past Tuesday directly from the local HP webshop. It arrived the next day, and straight out of the box I've been having this issue where the laptop freezes for 1 - 5 seconds while I'm just browsing the web and listening to some music trough Youtube. I've done all driver updates, bios update, windows updates, full system reset and the problem persists. I've called HP support and they did the suggestion of a full system hardware test. So we did that and it passed on all aspects. Now HP won't get back to me till Monday, so I went to the Microsoft support forum to see if it's maybe a windows issue. Someone there suggested me to run a diagnostic tool called "LatencyMon" which checks if a system running Windows is suitable for processing real-time audio and other tasks. According to that result there is some hardware issue with my laptop that causes it to have issues with music.

 

Now I'm in a pickle. School starts this Monday and I really do need a laptop. Should I let HP try and fix it and risk them taking very long? And how likely am I to have more issues down the road if they do "fix" it? Should I see if I can get a replacement? Or should I just return it and ask for my money back? If I do return it, what other laptop should I get? Another HP? The new XPS line up is really out of my price range, this one costed €1400 for the i7-1065G/16gb/512ssd and XPS starts around €1700 for the base model. Did I make a mistake buying a HP Spectre or is this just a isolated issue?

Thanks in advance for any insight or advice!

Bro IDK what are HP's return policies but I think you should return it and ether ask for a new one or just take the money and buy a different laptop (LG gram 2-1, Dell XPS 13 - 2-1, asus zenbook flip (if you can wait there is a new zenbook flip s with a 3:2 4K screen or a 16:9 4k Oled coming out in 2-3 weeks)